Milk and milk derivatives

Milk (whole) is an important source of vitamins A, B2, B12 and minerals like calcium, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium and zinc (0.6%). It also contains protein (3.3%), fat (3.5%) and carbohydrates (4.5%) in the form of milk sugars. They give milk a slightly sweet taste.

Fat in milk

The amount and type of fat in milk varies. The fatness of milk is mainly dependent on the food of the cows. In the spring, the fat content can increase to 5%, because of the fresh grass that they eat. A cup of milk (200ml) that is straight from the cow, contains 10 grams of fat. For a cup whole milk is that 7 grams, of which 4 grams is saturated fat, and in a cup semi-skimmed milk it is 4 grams, half of which is saturated fat. Skimmed milk contains no fat.

Types of milk

There is full, semi-skimmed and skimmed milk. The first contains a minimum of 3.5% fat, semi-skimmed contains 1.5 to 1.8% fat and skimmed max 0.5%. If milk fat has a different fat content, it has to be on the packaging (..% milk fat). Semi-skimmed milk is the most popular: 87% of all milk sold issemi-skimmed, 7% is full and 6% is skimmed.

More than half of fat is saturated fat. When cows get grass or oil in their food, the unsaturated fat content increases.

There are also foods where it is less clear whether the product contains milk. Many manufacturers use milk or milk powder or only certain ingredients (milk derivatives) from the milk to be processed in their products.

More taste

Bread is a product in which milk or milk derivatives may be incorporated in the form of milk powder, whey powder (lactose, protein), milk fat and milk protein. Milk or milk derivatives give the bread more flavor, color (crumb and crust) and the dough is smoother. At the product itself, you often can’t see if it contains milk derivatives, while sometimes it is.

Bread may be appointed as milk bread if the milk ingredients are added in their natural ratio, so that the milk fat content is at least 1.5% of the dry matter.

A product contains milk derivatives, if any of the following terms is mentioned as an ingredient:

In the list of ingredients on the label, you can see the designations "lactic acid" and "lactate". In both cases chemicals have nothing to do with milk derivatives. The well reading of the declaration of ingredients is therefore always important.